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Overview

Organized labor faces enormous challenges in the increasingly global economy. The effect of multinational corporations, the portability of technology and capital, and lowered trade barriers in international commerce have all sparked widespread prophecies of trade union demise. This book, however, presents compelling evidence that unions can survive and grow if labor is willing to cooperate across national borders. Transnational Cooperation among Labor Unions is a seminal study of such cooperation as an effective weapon against the exploitation of workers in today's world.

After assessing the challenges confronting organized labor, the authors turn their attention to specifics. They describe and evaluate the most important transnational labor associations, campaigns, and transnational cooperatives in a variety of industries. Contributors include academics who have assessed the status of union-management relations and international labor organizations as well as participants in union campaigns organized across national boundaries.

Contributors:
Mark S. Anner, Cornell University
Larry Cohen, Communication Workers of America
Steve Early, Communication Workers of America
Michael E. Gordon, Rutgers University
David Jessup, New Economy Information Service
Andrew Martin, Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Harvie Ramsay, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
George Ross, Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Jean-Michel Servais, International Labor Office, Geneva
Lowell Turner, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University
Jim Wilson, Media and Entertainment International
John Windmuller, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University
Kenneth S. Zinn, International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers' Unions

About the Authors:
Michael E. Gordon is Professor of Organization Management at Rutgers University and the author of numerous articles on organizational behavior.

Lowell Turner is Professor in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. His many books include Fighting for Partnership: Labor and Politics in Unified Germany and Democracy at Work: Changing World Markets and the Future of Labor Unions, both from Cornell.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Thirteen papers contribute to the understanding of the industrial relations phenomena of transnational collaboration."—Journal of Economic Literature, September, 2001

"This is an avowedly normative collection, whose comprehensive nature makes it an important and timely contribution to an area that is under-researched and under-theorised. . . For labour activists and researchers interested in the future of the labour movement, this is a book of great importance."—Caroline Smith, University of Strathclyde. The Journal of Industrial Relations, December 2001

"Since the 1990s transnational citizen activism has been the subject of a growing literature. . . Strangely neglected, however, has been the topic of transnational labour activism. . . The edited volume by Gordon and Turner is thus a welcome effort to remedy this gap in the study of transnational mobilisation. Written mostly by US practitioners and scholars of labour relations, it is accessible to both activists and academics."—Beate Sissenich, Cornell University. Transfer 4/01

"Transnational Cooperation Among Labor Unions is a key contribution to the growing literature on labor's agency in global struggles with capital. It is uniformly well conceived and well edited."—Dale W. Wimberly, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Work and Occupations, Vol. 29, No. 1, February 2002

"This edited volume about international cooperation between unions could not have been published at a better time. It becomes clearer each day that the revival of the labor movement will depend largely on unions' ability to operate across borders and somehow reduce the negative impact of globalization on organizing and bargaining. This is a carefully organized and generally well-written book."—Gary Chaison, Clark University. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 55, No. 3, April 2002

"This book describes pioneering efforts to answer capital's globalization with international labor cooperation. It's difficult but essential work—and this book shows that it can be done."—Jeremy Brecher, author of Global Village or Global Pillage: Economic Reconstruction from the Bottom Up

Related Subjects

Meet the Author

Lowell Turner is Professor of International and Comparative Labor at the ILR School and Director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University. He is coeditor most recently of Mobilizing against Inequality, Labor in the New Urban Battlegrounds, and Rekindling the Movement, all from Cornell.

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